The present invention relates to a rear light assembly for signalling braking of a motor vehicle such as a car, truck or motor cycle. It specifically relates to an auxiliary rear light assembly to be used in addition to the standard vehicle brake lights.
The standard motor vehicle rear brake lights comprise conventional tail lights mounted low down on the rear of the vehicle. When the motor vehicle lights are on, braking simply results in a steady light of greater intensity, which may or may not be noticed by the following drivers. Tail lights are normally positioned on the right and left hand lower edges of vehicles and are thus in a driver's peripheral vision. It is quite possible for a driver not to notice brake lights in vehicles ahead, and in fact rear end collisions as a result of drivers not noticing the brake light signal are relatively common, particularly in bad weather, poor visibility conditions
There is therefore some need for an improved brake signal indicating device which will alert following drivers but at the same time will not unduly distract them from observation of other traffic conditions. Various signalling devices have been proposed in the past for providing a more obvious braking or deceleration signal to following drivers.
Some of the previous signalling devices use existing tail light assemblies, which are normally at a low level well below the line of sight of following drivers and limited to their peripheral vision. These therefore have much the same visibility problems as standard brake lights. These systems generally provide electrical circuits to cause the brake lights to flash on and off for a predetermined time, since a flashing light is more noticeable than a steady one. The lights then burn steadily as long as the brakes are applied. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,441,906 of Nielson each tail light includes two lamps directed at different angles which are caused to flash alternately by application of the brakes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,210 of Sullivan, an enhancer circuit is inserted in a conventional vehicle lighting system to cause the brake lights to flash on and off a predetermined number of times. Similar devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,629,820 of Sakurai, U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,151 of Hasegawa et al, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,305,829 and 3,568,146 of Knez.
It has been proposed to provide an extra brake or signal light assembly in addition to the conventional vehicle rear lights. Thus, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,109,158 of Coombs a three lamp signal light assembly is mounted on the rear of a vehicle body in a central position. Different combinations of the three lamps are arranged to light up in response to idling, acceleration, braking, and reverse motion of the vehicle. However, this would require following drivers to be able to interpret the lamp combinations correctly, and could distract them unduly from their own driving. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,375,496 of Antunovic a deceleration indicator for motor vehicles is described in which three light bulbs are mounted in a housing on the rear of a vehicle. In response to deceleration of the vehicle as a result of release of the accelerator the central bulb burns steadily while the outer bulbs flash on and off.